Tuesday, December 25, 2012

The challenge for December on Sprite Stitch is villains, and even though I know not a lot of people are familiar with Mobile Suit Gundam (not people that I know anyway), my husband is totally into it and I've seen quite a bit of if it. My favorite character is Char Aznable. I found a great sprite of him from an arcade game from 1993. Here he is:

There is a great quote to describe Char from hardcoregaming101.net:

"Char Aznable is arguably the most iconic anime character in history. He's idolized and quoted in Japan in much the same way people in America idolize and quote Darth Vader. Known as the infamous Red Comet, Char remains Amuro's rival from the One Year War until last Neo Zeon War 14 years later. He believes that Newtypes are the next evolutionary step for mankind, and that they should inherit the universe."

I know that it's very unlikely that I will win this challenge since not a lot of people are familiar with Gundam, but I'm okay with that. It was fun to make, I love how it came out, and my husband thinks it's "awesome." ;)
And as a bonus, here is the awesome Char song.

When msstitcher listed her favorite games, and I saw Dune, I thought for sure that I would make something Dune related. My husband wanted me to do an embroidery of Sting as Feyd. You know, this iconic image:

But..... I wasn't really up to stitching that. ;)
Then I noticed that one of her other favorite things is Lord of the Rings, and she's been working on a giant map of Middle Earth for a long time. So I decided to stitch something that I've been wanting to stitch for a while, the door to Moria:

So, here it is:

I also had the perfect frame for it. Msstitcher lives in England, so this made the postage much more expensive, but I think it was worth it. This is the best photo I could get. In real life the frame is very pretty and a bit more red:

I still had to include something from Dune though. So here is the card I sent her:

The artwork isn't mine of course, but it's pretty awesome, and msstitcher loved it too.She says that my Moria door is proudly displayed in her home. Here is a quote from her blog: "I received the best swap gift last week. I genuinely could not have chosen a better hand made gift for myself." This is very gratifying. It makes the whole swap process worth it. :) Here is a link to her blog, btw.I also received some lovely complements on the tiny Elvish stitching. That was definitely the most challenging part of this project, but I'm glad I pushed myself to do it. This is one of those projects that looks much better in person than in photos, which is very frustrating. But overall, I think it was successful.

I participated in the Sprite Stitch Mini Swap, and received these amazing gifts from Petitcat!!! Yes, everything arrived in tact. Because I've been in the middle of moving, it's taken me a bit to take the photos, but here they are!

I'm going to quote from her letter a bit to help explain everything. First is her inventory list:honey jar with pika-beedragon potholdersPikachu colored cup holderStar Trek place-matsDanish marzipan chocolateHere is a closeup of the Pika-bee jar:

Petitcat says that the jar with the Pika-bee cover on it is wild flower honey from her local farmers market, and that there is a guy who makes it himself and that it's good quality. I love honey! It's so sweet (pun intended) that you sent it to me and thought to make the cover. I love Pikachu and I have a major affinity for bees. In fact, I have a silver necklace with a small bee charm that I never take off.On to more gifts! Here is a closeup of one of the dragons from the potholders:

Here is Petitcat's description: "The dragon potholders pattern is from a book with patterns from the Middle Ages, and I just liked it so much. The dragon is from the 13th century, so it's old, but it's one of my favorites. (I have a soft spot for really old stuff.)"

The potholders are so cool! They are so well made too. Did you sew the potholder part too? It's so professional. And the dragons are beautifully stitched.